Cleveland is disproportionately old

A new data dashboard compiled by The Urban Institute drives home a central fact about the demographics of Northeast Ohio: We are old.

TheAtlanticCities.com says the dashboard “visualizes datasets — and the connections between them — on a long list of quantifiable aspects of urban life, from local unemployment to crime rates to housing prices.” Particularly fascinating, the website says, is a set of demographic data drawn from the 2010 Census that illustrates population dynamics by age across communities.

In an understatement, TheAtlanticCities.com notes that U.S. cities “don't uniformly reflect the age demographics of the nation as a whole. Rather, some metropolitan areas have an inordinate number of young children, or aging seniors, or young professionals.”

Cleveland and Detroit, the site points out, stand out as “Rust Belt metros that have struggled to keep successful twentysomethings in town.” Both cities “seem to have a hole right in their demographic center,” as the dashboard's data visualization makes abundantly clear.

The Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor chart tracks the region's population for each age from 0 to 100 and tracks it against the expected population at each age based on U.S. averages.

The biggest gap for the Cleveland market is in the ages stretching from about 18 to 30. For instance, the market had 23,704 people age 26 in the 2010 Census; if Cleveland's population of people age 26 matched the U.S. average, the market would have had 27,937 people age 26.

By contrast, this market had 34,583 people who were age 52 in the 2010 Census, well above the 30,283 that would have resulted from an average number of 52-year-old residents.

This and that

The next generation: The Corporate Intelligence blog at The Wall Street Journalbreaks down “the 10 things we learned” at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and in doing so passes along some thoughts from Cleveland Clinic CEO Toby Cosgrove.

“Conversations with U.S. health care executives revealed just how much change is in store for the U.S. health-care system — particularly the doctors who once were its wealthy beneficiaries,” the blog post notes. “Today upwards of 60% of U.S. doctors are salaried workers, having abandoned their small businesses for a weekly paycheck.”

Bigger changes seem in store as a way to incentivize doctors to spend less, not more, according to the post.

For instance, Dr. Cosgrove said he expects the United States “to coalesce around 50 huge hospital systems, with mergers across state borders becoming prevalent,” according to the post, while Aetna CEO Mark Bertelini said he expects the number of specialists to decline sharply.

“In all, the range of changes seems so severe that it will take a generation of U.S. doctors to retire before all these cost-saving plans become real,” the post concludes.

Taken for a ride?: There's a lot of attention today to a Consumer Federation of America review of a dozen cities, including Cleveland, showing that the largest U.S. auto insurers “weigh occupation and education levels more than driving records to set rates for minimum-liability coverage.”

The group compared quotes from Mayfield Village-based Progressive Corp., Allstate, Geico, Farmers Insurance and State Farm for two fictional 30-year-old female drivers — one a married executive with a master's degree and a home who'd caused $800 in damage in an accident in the past three years, the other a single receptionist with a high-school education who was renting and had a clean driving record.

“Controlling for variables like zip code and car model, the group found that the executive got a lower quote in most cases than the receptionist, who had also been without coverage for 45 days,” Bloomberg reports. “The findings show that companies are using discriminatory metrics in setting rates for coverage that is mandated in most states, the CFA said.”

Progressive, Farmers and Geico “quoted a higher rate to the receptionist in all 12 cities,” Bloomberg notes. State Farm was the outlier, giving the receptionist a lower rate than the executive in all 12 cities, according to the story.

Jeff Sibel, a Progressive spokesman, writes in an email to Bloomberg that Progressive works “to price each driver's policy as accurately as possible” and uses multiple criteria, “which sometimes include non-driving factors that have proven to be predictive of a person's likelihood of being involved in a crash.”

They'll represent the region at Savor: An American Craft Beer & Food Experience, which runs June 14 and 15. The event, organized by the Brewers Association, holds a lottery to determine the breweries. Hundreds apply to participate; 76 made the cut.

The breweries will serve their beer paired with special dishes crafted by Chef Adam Dulve of San Francisco's Monk's Kettle and Abbot's Cellar.

Looks like they made it:USA Todayprofiles Akron natives Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney — you know them better as the Black Keys — and predicts a big night for them in the coming Grammy Awards, where the duo have six nominations, including a best album nod for their hit disc “El Camino.”

With industry handicappers “split but leaning toward Mumford & Sons, the Keys may not have a lock on the marquee album prize,” the newspaper says. But Billboard senior correspondent Phil Gallo predicts victory for the garage-rock revivalists.

"It's a breakthrough record in terms of establishing a Black Keys sound," Mr. Gallo says. "It created an identifiable sound that helps bring more rock music, more grounded music into the pop realm. Grammy voters would want to reward that."

Messrs. Auerbach and Carney now live in Nashville, which Mr. Carney calls "Akron with nicer weather." The move “hasn't altered the Keys' musical sensibilities,” the newspaper notes, adding, “the duo's hometown wasn't much of a musical influence, either.”

"But in a way, our work ethic and the way we approach the band all stems from being in Akron," Mr. Carney says. "All of our friends started bands because there's not much to do."